Remember that creative imagination we all had as kids? These children put that youthful innovation into impressive and highly-profitable consumer products (with the support of their parents of course!)…
The Popsicle – Frank Epperson (11 Years Old)
In 1905, 11-year-old Frank left a flavoured drink mix outside with a stick he had used for stirring the concoction. The next morning, after record lows, he came outside and noticed the drink had frozen to the stick thus creating a unique treat. 18 years later Frank patented the concept and two years later made a small fortune licencing the idea to the Joe Lowe Company in New York.
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We have all heard the adage about building better mousetraps, which is why designing for marketability is so important in order to gain viral product exposure, something that every home inventor hopes for.
The Mako Invent designed and developed Tongue to Teeth product by Canadian inventors Adel Elseri and Sid Fayad is the most recent example of huge success in this, gaining exposure in just 24 hours on the Huffington Post, Edmonton Journal, Design Taxi, and even translated for a major Blog website in Russia, among a half dozen other places (and growing!). (more…)
Industrial design exists all around us and pervades our daily lives. It’s not physical, but it leads to tangible results and its essence is captured in the products and technologies it gives birth to. Countless items; from basic kitchen utensils to full-blown space stations, lend their existence to industrial design.
In its most basic sense, industrial design is a procedure that starts with an idea and ends with the manufacture of a product—not unlike the invention process. In fact, industrial designers work independently, or with clients, to develop and improve upon inventive and innovative solutions to everyday problems. They play a major role in conceptualizing product ideas, but their particular expertise lies in coming up with design solutions. (more…)
Many inventors spend their time tinkering away at a model of their idea and end up with a fully functional prototype. This finished prototype will often sit unattended for a period of time during which the inventor considers the next logical step. Often times, the inventor is unsure about where to go from the prototype stage and they may put off thinking about it until it eventually slips their mind.
Thus, many incarnations of brilliant ideas get reduced to mere dust collectors.
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Thanks to the Patent Prosecution Highway program (PPH), obtaining patent rights in multiple countries is faster and easier than ever before. Typically, the process of applying for a patent in an additional country is extremely costly and could take up to four years to reach completion; but by taking advantage of the PPH program, inventors can have their patent claims examined by a subsequent country just two months after entry in the program. (more…)
